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Wednesday, 18 April 2012

No Champions Trophy after 2013

The ICC Champions Trophy, which will be held in England, in 2013, will pull its final curtains as the association plans having one championship for each of the game's three formats from 2015.

While the playoffs for the World Test Championship are scheduled for June 2017, the 50 over tournament, which has been on since 1998, is terminated in the International Cricket Council's Future Tours Program after 2013.

"We have said for a while that we would like one championship event for each format. We are including the Test championship in there. We have the World Cup to have the champion for 50-overs cricket. So we are not planning to hold Champions Trophy in the future," The Nation quoted ICC Chief Executive, Haroon Lorgat, as saying.

The ICC had initially hoped to change the format of the Champions Trophy, to that of play-offs between the top four Test teams as per the ICC Test rankings.

However, following a ICC's executive board meeting in 2011, they released its statement which cited there would be significant commercial challenges in replacing the Champions Trophy without the support and consent of the ICC's broadcast partner, ESPN and changing the tournament's format from ODIs to Test play-offs would require a substantial cut in the broadcast rights fee, which would supposedly have repercussions on the Members.

The second-biggest 50-over tournament of ICC will be held in 2013 England that would feature the eight highest-ranked ODI teams calculated six months before the tournament. (ANI)